Feed and bed fashion
Feed and bed fashion
FEEDER/BEDDERS are now in vogue. Latest company to announce the arrival of such a machine is WestMac in the form of the French-built P3000 800RI.
As with several other models, the WestMac machine can handle round or square bales of silage, hay or straw, the latter can be blown up to a distance of up to 18m.
A rear door which lowers to the ground enables bales to be self-loaded if required and, when one is positioned in the main chamber, a second can be carried on the semi-raised door ramp.
Bales are moved forwards into a single shredder rotor by a hydraulically driven slatted conveyor, an arrangement which allows infinite speed control and reversing.
The rotor, driven mechanically through a two-speed gearbox, is equipped with eight banks of self-sharpening knives which shred the bales before passing the shredded material into the paddle blower unit. Scraper bars positioned between respective banks of knives not only keep the rotor clean but are claimed to prevent excessive unchopped material falling into the blower unit.
Material is discharged via a directional chute. When straw is being shredded, the rotor speed is set at it highest speed, and at its slowest when handling pre-chopped or unchopped silage bales.
WestMac insists the ability to slow the speed of the rotor via a simple gear change – rather than by merely reducing pto speed – maintains a high torque drive just when it is necessary.
Price of the WestMac P3000 800PI feeder/shredder is £10,990.n